SASP Athlete Jenna Jones Receives 2A Heritage Scholarship
A Girl & A Gun (AG & AG) announces that 14-year-old Jenna Jones, an AG & AG Youth Member from Comfort, TX, is the recipient of scholarship from AG & AG to be a 2A Heritage camper. Jenna earned High Junior at 3-Gun University on March 19, at the CMP Talladega Marksmanship Park.
The 2017 2A Heritage Junior Camps will take place this summer in Forest Lake, MN, and Topton, PA. Only 25 campers will be accepted into each event. Classes will take place on the first two days, followed by a match-style shοot on the last day. Juniors will receive instruction on pistol, rifle, shotgun (basic), long-range rifle, shotgun on the move/slugs/buckshot, advanced pistol skills, and transitions and stage planning.
“AG & AG has welcomed thousands of women into the shooting community, so we have seen an increase in family participation as well,” says Julianna Crowder, Founder of AG & AG. “Shooting sports have traditionally been a family activity; however, over the past 20 years, participation tapered so that most children only touched on marksmanship with pellet gυns at summer camps. 2A Heritage gives juniors the shοoting skills at the highest level. We are proud to support their programs to educate the next generation of competitive shooters.”
AG & AG sponsors the 2A Heritage website and will host a pizza dinner for the participants and their parents during the events. More information can be found at www.2AHeritage.org and AG & AG Youth Memberships.*Reprinted by permission from A Girl and A Gun. Learn more at AGirlandAGun.org.
NOTE: Jenna is an SASP athlete with the Texas Hill Country Junior Marksmen. This is new SASP team that competed in their first SASP match at the Southwest Winter Regional in February.
Don't miss the 2016 Cody Roundup! The city of Cody, Wyoming, will welcome student athletes June 22-25, for a three-day regional competition for shooters in high school and college divisions at Cody Shooting Complex. This event is open to all SCTP teams in trap, skeet, and sporting clays, or in all three disciplines. Prizes include $15,000 awarded to MidwayUSA Foundation team endowments, along with giveaways of two Tristar Setter 28-gauge over and under shotguns. For more information, contact Marty at 307-899-3703 or Tiger at 307-899-6124. Or 
The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation (SSSF), parent organization for the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) and Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP), is announcing a change of venue for the 2016 SCTP and SASP National Championship events. The 2016 National Championships are being planned for July 9-16 at the Cardinal Shooting Center in Marengo, Ohio. The World Shooting and Recreational Complex (WSRC) located in Sparta, Illinois, has been home of the SSSF National Championships for the last several years. Due to the unresolved statewide budget issues in Illinois, the state-owned WSRC remains closed at this time with no communicated schedule for reopening. The SSSF board of directors and senior leadership team have evaluated different options to keep the event in Sparta. Due to the continued unresolved budget situation and potential for government-mandated continued closure, the Foundation feels it is in the best interest of its members to provide certainty for the 2016 National Championship event. The SSSF National Championships contract with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) extends through July of 2017. The SSSF and IDNR have mutually agreed to suspend the contract for 2016 and will meet again to revisit the terms for 2017 in September of this year. The Foundation has entered into a one year agreement with the Cardinal Center Campground and Shooting Center to host the 2016 National Championships. The Center has 52 trap fields, 3 sporting clays courses, and rifle and pistol range construction is well underway. Several large-scale infrastructure projects are commencing at the center to accommodate the multiple shooting disciplines the SCTP and SASP championships bring. These projects include construction of 14 new skeet fields and 14 new action shooting bays which are scheduled to be completed well prior to the championships in July. Considered Ohio’s premier public shooting sports facility, the Cardinal Center offers impressive shooting ranges, as well as an indoor heated pool, lake for fishing, lots of outdoor activities, and great facilities for family camping, including 550 camp sites and Wi-Fi service available on the grounds. The center is located at I-71 (exit 140) and St. Rt. 61, just 30 miles north of Columbus and in close proximity to several hotels and restaurants. Looking for Lodging? 
A Family Enjoys A Safari Adventure In Africa by Joel Hodgdon After three car rides, two plane flights, one 13 hours long, and an exhausting trip through South African customs where one of our rifles was left behind at the airport due to changes in paper- work we were not aware of, shooting our first antelope, an impala, in the thick brush made the journey there well worth it. Memories of this safari will last a lifetime and get us through many a slow day at work. But we didn’t make these memories alone. Our whole family journeyed across the world to have an adventure together - big game and plains game hunting in the Limpopo province near Vaalwater in northern South Africa. Driving to a different location every day was special; the land- scape was vast and beautiful, including deep woods, mountains, open plains, swamps, peanut farms and plenty of dusty roads. 
And hunt we did! Two weeks in the brush yielded more than 19 trophies among the three of us hunters. My brother and I were successful in getting an impala, warthog, blue wildebeest, blesbok, and I tacked on a zebra and nyala. Little brother did well taking a nice kudu. Dad’s trophies included sable, waterbuck, eland, bush- buck, reedbuck (common and mountain), duiker, blesbok and klipspringer. Mom was there to pull the trigger—on a camera instead of a .30-’06—while we boys did the dirty work of crawling through mud and sprinting up hills to realize our dream of getting that perfect mount on the wall. Mom was a trooper through and through. She experienced many bumpy roads in the truck while appreciating the beauty an African sunrise gave us as a shared experience unmatched by any typical resort or sunny island. For the first time she witnessed the whole process of stalking, tracking (seeing dad crawl through the bushes, too), trophy shot and didn’t shy away from watching the field dressing of each animal. One of the highlights dad and mom enjoyed was seeing a hippo cross the highway directly in front of their vehicle. Good thing they stopped in time. Hunting was, of course, pure fun as our outfitter Joubert Pro Hunt. Owners Spyker and Ilse Joubert handled everything else. From the minute we stepped off the plane, our guides took care of the travel arrangements: cooking, cleaning, laundry, and our time in the field on game farms throughout the area. 
Spyker and Clinton van Tonder, our Professional Hunters, always knew where and when to take us for the exact animal that we wanted to track and hunt. Mom had a more realistic view of a safari after hunting seven straight days. Her perception came from Hollywood movies where they show wide-open country driving the herd to the vehicle and just point and shoot. Spyker gave her an education. Our family didn’t bring home the Big Five, but we were astonished to learn about the diversity that a safari offered. There was a little something for each of us, like a dove hunt rivaling Argentina. We were never bored as there was always a unique day planned for us. 
Coming back to the lodge at night after our usually successful day hunting, a three-course dinner was waiting for us, exotic and delicious, as prepared by our live-in Chef, Gerda Van Graan. These feasts, with fresh entrées often prepared from our own trophy animals (nothing is wasted—meat, organs, bones—everything is used), were accompanied with Ilse’s homemade hot sauce, plenty of award winning South African wine and the local’s favorite drink, brandy. Mom learned to appreciate the brandy when she needed to warm herself after the cold bush pig hunt. After dinner, our family mingled with our hosts in their comfortable home until we could no longer keep our eyes open. An unforgettable experience, my first African safari was made all the more meaningful by having my family alongside me. After you go on safari once, however, you will want to go back...we are already talking about another trip! Many thanks to our hosts, Joubert Pro Hunt! 
Commentary From Chris Hodgdon: With my older son Joel recently finishing his undergraduate degree in May 2015 and off to graduate school and Pierce, my younger son in the middle of his college career, we are at the point of our life where the nest will soon be empty. My wife Adele and I agreed that now was the best time as any to travel together on an African adventure. We purchased this safari through a fundraiser benefitting the Scholastic Clay Target program. It certainly was well worth the investment. This was my second safari; quite frankly I don’t know why it took ten years to go back! My caliber of choice was my terrific .270 WSM Model 70 Featherweight Winchester that has traveled the world with me. Plenty of horsepower to knock down the massive eland to the little duiker, my rifle seems to really like 68 to 69 grains of Retumbo (powder) under either the 160 Nosler Partition or the 150 Hornady SST bullet. The other rifle (that didn’t get held up at South African customs) was a Browning A-Bolt .30-’06. It shot very well with the Nosler 180 Partition Custom ammunition. My sincere thank you to Denis Karnosky who donated the safari to SCTP; Ilse and Leon “Spyker” of Joubert Pro Hunt; Kobus Lizkor, who was a terrific escort to Krueger Park; John Nosler, Bushnell, MTM Case-Gard, SKB Gun Cases and all our friends at Safari Club International. 
State advisors and coaches, have you had a statewide coaches meeting to plan for the coming year? Wisconsin did last week. Utilizing a conference call, the coaches got together to discuss the items on their agenda. They started the call by going through the new Scholastic Pistol Program rule changes for this season. Rick Leach, the SPP Director of Development, joined them on their call and answered questions on the rules and explained the reasons for the new rules. They also heard about planned fundraising opportunities for the year, including a national SPP fundraising banquet which will be hosted in Wisconsin in 2016. Wisconsin Coaches picked a date and location for their Wisconsin State SPP Championship, and also discussed hosting a NRA Level 1 Pistol Coaches Class, which is now scheduled for February 6-7, 2016. Coach assistance with recruiting new teams was also discussed. Wisconsin is currently in second place for number of participants in SPP and they are shooting to pass Tennessee to become #1. (A little friendly state competition) With that in mind, they heard about how coaches recruiting new teams should have that new team put the coach’s name that referred them on the new team registration form. Those coaches recruiting new teams will be entered into a drawing for a great prize at nationals. Stay tuned for the announcement of that great prize, which will be coming soon. The two hour conference call helped to keep everyone informed without coaches having to travel long distance. If your state is interested in setting up a conference call, contact Rick Leach at 262-894-4284 or